Comments on: International Poverty Comparisons: What Do They Tell Us about Causes?http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/
"Wisdom is respected, hatred is rejected."Mon, 30 Mar 2015 00:45:33 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1By: How the government fights poverty, in one charthttp://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/#comment-292823
Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:58:56 +0000http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/?p=6457#comment-292823[…] government programs reduced poverty by 10.9 percent, or 33.6 million people. This is borne out in cross-country comparisons that show the main difference (pdf) between developed countries’ high and low poverty rates […]
]]>By: Dan Khttp://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/#comment-291556
Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:18:40 +0000http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/?p=6457#comment-291556<>

Probably it’s because that’s exactly how this particular metric defines “poverty”. Are you actually surprised to discover that 25% of people have per capita incomes at or below half the median income?

]]>By: Bob Savagehttp://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/#comment-290687
Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:10:30 +0000http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/?p=6457#comment-290687The most disturbing fact offered by this chart is that “market driven” economies absent government intervention through transfer payments leave more than 25% of participants in poverty. Why is this the case? Is capitalism such a flawed system/structure as to leave one in four participants in poverty? Forget the remedial efforts by governments to mitigate poverty conditions, what is the current thought on how to improve the system/structure so that we drive 25% close to 0%?
]]>By: Michaelhttp://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/#comment-290066
Sun, 09 Sep 2012 12:36:36 +0000http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/?p=6457#comment-290066American discussion of poverty is more or less determined by race. If you want to make a conservative’s head explode, start talking about Appalacian poverty.
]]>By: Mark Thomsonhttp://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/#comment-289979
Sun, 09 Sep 2012 10:36:49 +0000http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/?p=6457#comment-289979A few thoughts in response…

– making an international comparison based on data that defines poverty as 50% of median income doesn’t allow us to take into account differing national income levels. It would be interesting to see a comparison that is either normalized to per capita income by country or based on some other poverty measure more closely related to actual purchasing power.

– if I understand correctly you seem to be saying that the relative similarity of market-poverty across different countries shows that the poor are not the principal cause of their own low incomes. Couldn’t you use the same data to argue in a different direction – that whatever differences in “cultural and religious proclivities” exist across these countries, those differences seem to have little influence on actual human behavior as it relates to the causes of poverty. Whether this is true or not I don’t know… I just think that your argument needs more supporting evidence than what you have shown here.

– Although your argument is predicated on the similarity of market poverty levels across countries, I was actually struck by the variation – a factor of almost 2:1. I think before you try to draw conclusions based on the similarity, it would be helpful to understand more clearly what it is that makes, for example, Finland, Spain and Switzerland so much better than their peers.

– While I certainly agree that “simplistic explanations that largely implicate the poor themselves” are incomplete, we have to be equally cautious about adopting simplistic and incomplete arguments in the other direction.

]]>By: Nhon Tranhttp://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/#comment-289812
Sun, 09 Sep 2012 03:17:58 +0000http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/?p=6457#comment-289812Thank you. I think transfers continue to play an important role in reducing poverty in the OECD area but employment (as near to full employment as possible) and access to improvement in education and skills represent the best way of reducing poverty. Regds.
]]>By: jonathanhttp://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/#comment-289779
Sun, 09 Sep 2012 02:27:10 +0000http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/?p=6457#comment-289779These figures have been around for years.

Problem is rational people see them and say, “The American system does not generate fewer poor people” but irrational people see them and say, “See, if we got rid of government, we’d generate fewer poor people.” You might think we could dissuade the irrational by trying this, by eliminating government, but even then they’d find some reason to keep to their irrational beliefs.

]]>By: D. C. Sessionshttp://jaredbernsteinblog.com/international-poverty-comparisons-what-do-they-tell-us-about-causes/#comment-289689
Sat, 08 Sep 2012 23:09:58 +0000http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/?p=6457#comment-289689You’re not taking American exceptionalism into account: unlike other countries, American poor are lazy worthless sub-humans who only work if inspired by the lash.
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